‘Tremendous opportunities’ await the nutrition industry as it embarks upon a modernized scientific approach to address nutrition, health/wellness and aging, says the Chief Executive Officer of a Silicon Valley company at the cutting edge of R&D.

A new nutrition paradigm, Nutrition 2.0, is “a lot closer than one would think”, said Guy Miller, MD, PhD, CEO Edison Pharmaceuticals, Executive Chairman Ampere Life Sciences, and it starts with debunking the Zeitgeist of ‘one-size-fits-all’ nutrition.

Miller’s Blueprint for Nutrition 2.0, focuses on three core elements that includes modernizing the definition of vitamin; embracing new discovery technologies, and amassing and querying “big data” sets. This represents a “tremendous opportunity” and a “technical feeding ground”, he said, whether companies are focused on innovation, corporate economics, or both.

“Some companies will embrace innovation and the resulting disruptive technologies while others will not,” said Dr Miller. “Some will be in denial like Kodak, not embrace innovation and squander 1st mover advantage and capital. Kodak’s denial about a photography business model without traditional Kodak film, in spite of virtually inventing digital photography, is a poignant example.

“Speculative, claims-based marketing to consumers, absent scientific data, will in the future yield to solid science, and premium nutrition products that deliver on their stated benefits”.

Miller’s Blueprint for Nutrition 2.0

In his Blueprint for Nutrition 2.0, Dr Miller emphasizes essential elements for a global modernization of nutrition R&D. There are three aspects to Miller’s blueprint:

1) Modernize the definition and advance the discovery of new vitamins.‘Nutrition 1.0’ is predicated largely on a one size fits all approach to vitamin’s, phytonutrients, and metabolic building blocks. This is antithetic to current data. Different individuals with variable genetic compositions, at different ages under various physiologic challenges require fundamentally different nutrients at different quantities.

"The incorporation of genetic, proteomic and metabolomic technologies can accelerate and refine clinical nutrition science."

2) Advance nutrient validation clinical science. Nutritional clinical science is challenged by time­– the latency before we observe a biological response. New models and experimental techniques are needed to (essentially) compress biological time. The incorporation of genetic, proteomic and metabolomic technologies can accelerate and refine clinical nutrition science.

3) Capture and build big data sets at “point of care”. We current extrapolate nutrient essentiality from relatively small experimental data sets under highly controlled conditions. Mobile technology and cloud-based computing can enable capture of valuable human/clinical data in real-world settings with vast number of subjects.

Cutting edge

As reported by NutraIngedients-USA in 2011
, Dr Miller is on the cutting edge of nutrition research and development. Have there been advances? Yes. “We’ve developed a battery of clinical tests to measure biochemically the hallmarks of biological time, and correlate them with actual and virtual age.”

“We are at a (nutritional) R&D crossroads– we don't know all of the essential nutrients and lack critical measurement technologies; and have a highly adulterated industrialized food supply providing excess simple calories stripped of nutrient value.

“The future of nutrition science hinges on identifying a broader spectrum of essential nutrients, validating their efficacy, and working to keep them in our food (or fortify)– and if they have been engineered out, they need to be put back in”, said Dr. Miller. “This is of immense economic and public heath importance”.

“Some may point to Michael Pollan’s ‘Back to the Future’ approach to food, which thematically addresses industrialized food,” he said. “While this is a needed and critical first step, it does not address whether we have identified all of the essential “vitamins” and whether we have the tools to objectively gauge response on an individualized basis.”

Is the Miller Blueprint for Nutrition 2.0 the solution?

Food Vision

At the inaugural Food Vision
event in Cannes, France (March 20-22, 2013), Dr Miller will drill down into this blueprint in even more detail.

‘Tremendous opportunities’ await the nutrition industry as it embarks upon a modernized scientific approach to address nutrition, health/wellness and aging, says the Chief Executive Officer of a Silicon Valley company at the cutting edge of R&D.

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Nutraceutical Manufacturers

I had read something about this development a few years ago. We are on the edge of being able to provide a new array of nutrients as a result of technology and studying the genetic profile of an individual. Nutraceutical Manufacturers stand to do very well as brand owners will look to meet consumer demand for these products.